Galvin S. Deleon Guerrero called on his fellow board members to consider revisiting the disciplinary policy of the Public School System to save the suspended students from facing a harsh punishment that is not commensurate to their offense.
“While overall student enrollment in all junior and high schools have remained constant, the number of suspensions has tripled in the past couple of years,” he said during their board meeting.
Data showed a significant number of those who were suspended were only meted the punishment for possession or use of betel nut or tobacco.
For school-year 2007-2008, 2,923 junior high and high school students were suspended.
In contrast, there were only 523 students in SY 2004-2005 who were suspended.
Suspension records from previous years were also lower.
“The number of suspensions varies dramatically between schools and even within individual schools from year to year. In school-year 2007-2008, the number one cause for suspension involved betel nut, with a total of 766 infractions for betel nut chewing and betel nut tobacco possession combined for that year,” Deleon Guerrero noted.
A former principal of Mount Carmel School, Deleon Guerrero said the offenders should have been counseled first or their parents should have been seen by school officials before the suspension was ordered rather than risk the students’ opportunity to advance to the next grade level.
He said under PSS Regulation 2606, 13 unexcused absences among students are grounds not to be passed to the next grade level.
Suspension counts as an unexcused absence in school.
Deleon Guerrero said schools should exhaust the standard protocol before handing down a suspension order to any student like discussing the problem with his parents or guardians or have the offender be counseled.
“At the committee’s Dec. 10, 2008 meeting, it was agreed that the disciplinary policy itself is a standard policy with a fair appeals process but it may not be consistently implemented in the various schools,” he said.
The other causes for suspension of students include marijuana possession, fighting with other students, refusal to obey teachers, assault and battery, sex-related offenses, among others.
